The world does not lack for stoner comedies, but every once in a while one comes along that takes a place in the canon alongside films like \u201cThe Big Lebowski,\u201d Cheech & Chong\u2019s\u00a0\u201c<\/i>Up in Smoke\u201d and \u201cHalf Baked.\u201d We\u2019re hoping \u201cThe Beach Bum\u201d can join their ranks.<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s start with the cast. It\u2019s led by Matthew McConaughey, whose drawl is more commonly associated with serious roles in \u201cDallas Buyers Club\u201d and \u201cA Time to Kill\u201d or heady action movies like \u201cInterstellar.\u201d Just his presence gives \u201cThe Beach Bum\u201d a gravitas that films like \u201cHow High\u201d or \u201cHarold and Kumar Go to White Castle\u201d make no attempt at. The weight of McConaughey\u2019s stardom gives the film something to play off of and helps its goofier, more absurd elements pop a little extra. This is further exacerbated by the mere presence of one of McConaughey\u2019s costars,\u00a0Snoop Dogg<\/a>. In addition to his unique charm, Snoop did what he could to make sure the movie will be a true cannabis comedy classic.<\/p>\n \u201cI got Snooped!\u201d McConaughey\u00a0told Jimmy Kimmel<\/a>\u00a0on his late-night talk show. \u201cI went to the prop man and made sure we had prop weed, not real weed. We did a six-minute scene, passing [a joint] back and forth, and then Snoop says, \u2018Hey Moondog [McConaughey\u2019s character], that ain\u2019t prop weed. That\u2019s Snoop weed.\u2019 The next nine hours were a lot of fun, but I don\u2019t think he used one word in the English language.\u201d<\/p>\n The film follows the episodic travails of Moondog, a writer in the midst of writer\u2019s block (hence the need for some Snoop weed). At stake is a share of the fortune of his rich spouse, played by Isla Fischer. His quest for inspiration leads to adventures with\u00a0Jimmy Buffett<\/a>, a dolphin-obsessed sea captain played by Martin Lawrence, and an insane-looking Zac Efron, whose hair falls somewhere between pompadour and lion\u2019s mane on top, with Venetian-blind stripes down through the sideburns.<\/p>\n The film\u2019s director, Harmony Korine, is known for his darker works, namely \u201cKids\u201d and \u201cSpring Breakers,\u201d that have focused on exploring the lows that people can sink to. \u201cThe Beach Bum\u201d is more lighthearted. He\u2019s even floated \u2014 dare we say wafted \u2014 the idea of showing his film in \u201cSmell-O-Vision\u201d theaters in states where cannabis is legal. These would be screenings with cannabis in the air, and presumably, it wouldn\u2019t be prop weed.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s how Korine explained his multimodal concept to a\u00a0French culture magazine<\/a>: \u201cI would very much like to see the film, when it\u2019s released, be shown in rooms that spread curls of marijuana [smoke].\u00a0It is possible in some states, such as California, that have legalized this drug for [medical use].\u00a0We already have about thirty rooms that have accepted.\u201d<\/p>\n With the theater experience increasingly competing with the twin pressures of home flat screens and streaming services, Korine\u2019s idea could be a unique draw to coax people out of the house. Whether or not the Smell-O-Vision comes to pass, Korine\u2019s concept brings up the notion that public, communal cannabis consumption is now possible in a way it wasn\u2019t before in the states that have legalized. While stoner culture has generally been siloed away from the mainstream, it will be interesting to see if that remains the case over time as legal consumption becomes normalized. Films like \u201cThe Beach Bum\u201d are guaranteed to draw in a slice of the normal movie-going audience simply because of the cast, potentially making it a crossover stoner movie, and Korine\u2019s hotboxed movie theater idea is one way in which cannabis can become both something enjoyed among friends, but also, like\u00a0alcohol<\/a>\u00a0and coffee, a substance enjoyed in public, among strangers, without furtiveness or shame.<\/p>\n Korine is a boundary pusher and he encourages the actors he works with to get outlandish and weird. The iconic example of this is James Franco\u2019s over-the-top, grotesque performance in \u201cSpring Breakers\u201d as Alien, a drug dealer obsessed with material wealth. We will have to see if anyone from \u201cThe Beach Bum\u201d captures the public\u2019s attention the way Franco did, but there will be some contenders. In addition to McConaughey himself, Efron may turn a few heads as a rehab patient whose motto is \u201cJesus already died for our sins,\u201d as might the dolphin-obsessed Lawrence, or Jonah Hill, who trades his standard funny sidekick role for one driven by a thick Cajun accent.<\/p>\n Korine is interested in excess, but in the stoner comedy, he seems to have found an outlet for a goofier form of excess than his previous works. This fits both the genre and the plant it derives from. Movies with a substance at their center tend to go down predictable paths. While there are a few alcohol-focused comedies (\u201cThe Hangover\u201d series comes to mind), excessive alcohol in movies tends to follow the depravity it leads to in real life. The stoner comedy plays up the stereotypes around unreliableness and forgetfulness, but not the inevitably darker turns that come with most harder drugs. With the comedy centered around marijuana, excess can be outlandish and absurd, but ultimately \u2014 harmless.<\/p>\n TELL US<\/b>, what\u2019s your favorite pot-focused movie?<\/p>\n Originally published in Issue 33 of Cannabis Now.\u00a0LEARN MORE<\/a><\/i><\/p>\n The post Provocative Pot Use Meets the Absurd in \u2018The Beach Bum\u2019<\/a> appeared first on Cannabis Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n
The world does not lack for stoner comedies, but every once in a while one comes along that takes a place in the canon alongside films like \u201cThe Big Lebowski,\u201d Cheech & Chong\u2019s\u00a0\u201cUp in Smoke\u201d and \u201cHalf Baked.\u201d We\u2019re hoping \u201cThe Beach Bum\u201d can join their ranks. Let\u2019s start withContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":41,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[50,125,7707,85,7708,6071,5771,7709,7710,239,7711,7712],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33017"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/41"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33017"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33017\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33018,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33017\/revisions\/33018"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33017"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33017"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33017"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\nRead More: Provocative Pot Use Meets the Absurd in \u2018The Beach Bum\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"